10-9-98: Well, after a month of projects and visiting on the Sassafras River, we’re on the move again. Some of our projects included wood work, replacing our 4 golf cart batteries with new ones, lots of sewing and canvas work, securing our anchors onboard, canning meats, etc. We "canned" chicken, beef and Italian sausage for our trip. This entails cooking the meat in glass mason jars in a pressure cooker, so you can store it without refrigeration. We'll have it onboard when we are a thousand miles from a grocery store! It’ll taste pretty good in the middle of the Pacific after many days of eating fish (Pat's comment: " Let's hope I'm catching fish!").
We left the Sassafras River on a gray drizzly day, and sailed across the bay to the western shore and anchored in the Rhodes River, just south of Annapolis, MD. It was a gentle rain and the winds were behind us, the tides helping to push us southward. (You can see some pictures of us sailing that day on the "PHOTOS" page). Our next two stops were the Solomon’s Island, MD on the Patuxent River and Deltaville, VA. We’re getting into the cruising mode now. This is a simplified account of our daily routine. Wake up at 0630- 0700, listen to VHF radio for weather forecast, quick refresher of area and charts ("maps" to you landlubbers), weigh anchor by 0715, hoist sails, breakfast while underway, take turns steering, check charts, check GPS, read paperbacks, trim sails, lunch while underway, write entries into log, arrive at destination for the evening, drop anchor, shower, dinner onboard, look over charts for the next day, decide on next destination (usually 40-50 miles away), read paperbacks, listen to VHF radio again for weather, go to bed…. then start the whole process over again the next day. This will be our mode for much of the ICW. We plan to do some offshore sailing if the weather cooperates south of Beaufort, NC.
10-12-98 We’re in Great Bridge, VA on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), about 10 miles south of Norfolk. The Chesapeake Bay is behind us now, all 168 miles of it, from the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal in the north to the Virginia capes in the south. We took a "no-nonsense" approach to sailing the Chesapeake – we had the wind and currents with us, so we did it in three days. We would’ve liked to spent more time exploring all the rivers and creeks (there is over 6,000 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake), but we are getting anxious to get south before the cold winds blow, so we’ll follow the sun south. The Chesapeake is a wonderful body of water that would take years to explore!
The ICW actually begins in Maine and runs down the coast to Florida, and around to Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. It officially begins at Norfolk, VA with Mile Marker "0" and is marked along the East Coast to Florida – for example the port of Miami is Mile Marker "1089". Almost all of the ICW passes through or near towns, cities and sites that have figured in US history – Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine,…. It is a refresher in US history and an interesting connection of natural lakes, rivers, sounds and man-made land cuts. We came through Norfolk this afternoon and past a lot of "big boats" tied up at the Naval Pier. (You can see a picture of the aircraft carrier, the Harry S. Truman on the "PHOTOS" page also.) We also saw amphibious ships, destroyers, submarines, supply ships and many others I cannot identify. After transiting the Great Bridge lock, the water in the canal turned an unusual color. It reminds me of dark beer, like Guinness (or maybe it’s just my Irish heritage). I’ve read that the dark brown color is caused by tannic acid from the juniper and cypress trees along the banks.
10-14-98 We crossed the Virginia /North Carolina border yesterday. We saw our first dolphins of the trip, in the Alligator River, on the ICW in NC. They were only ten feet from the boat and 3 of them gracefully surfaced and swam beside us for a few minutes. It was around noon and I think they were lunching on baitfish. The dolphin were a nice welcome to the state of North Carolina! The temperature has been 60 degrees in the morning and warming up to mid 70s by afternoon. Although this morning was a little cooler, since a cold front came through yesterday. Overall it's been great Fall sailing so far.
10-15-98 We're on our way into Oriental, NC on the Neuse River. It is just inland and south of Cape Hatteras. We hope to visit with some friends who have recently moved here from Highlands, NJ.
10-21-98 We just left Beaufort, NC (pronounced BOFORT), ICW Mile 203 this morning and are underway through Bogue Sound. Planning to travel about 50 miles today to the next anchorage. We were intending to sail offshore from Beaufort, NC to Charleston, SC, but forecasts for offshore winds were 30 knots. (A knot is a nautical mile per hour). So we opted to stay inside on the ICW.. We spent a few days in Oriental and then a couple more in Beaufort - these are two of our favorite spots along the ICW. In Oriental, we tied up at the free town dock and visited with 2 sets of friends that had moved from NJ. Oriental is a quiet little town of about 850 people and 2,000 boats! Most boaters live in Raleigh, NC and travel to Oriental. Beaufort is located near an ocean inlet. It's another great boating-town that caters to cruising boats heading south in the Fall. We anchored off the waterfront and went ashore to do laundry (right on the waterfront behind the General Store), pick up our mail at the post office (right on the waterfront) and borrow a courtesy car from the NC Maritime Museum (right on the waterfront) to go grocery shopping. The museum offers a free car to cruisers, all you do is put a few dollars of gas and a donation to the museum if you wish. What a great idea for those of us without land-wheels! We also had our mail service forward mail General Delivery to the post office and they will hold for "Yacht in Transit". Beaufort also has beautiful barrier islands along the coast with desolate beaches and wild ponies. I collected my first sand dollar of the trip here. You can see a picture of the ponies and our dinghy on "PHOTOS" page. We use this wooden rowboat, or dinghy, to go ashore when anchored. Pat custom-made it to fit on the cabin top of our boat. (We also have an inflatable dinghy).
10-25-98 Arrived in Charleston, SC this morning after a 27 hour offshore passage from Wrightsville Beach, NC (Masonboro Inlet). We were getting restless from motor sailing down the ICW - it is a very narrow and somewhat limited channel along this stretch. We were looking forward to offshore sailing, getting some miles under SIMMER's keel and maybe even catch a fish trolling. In the ICW, we stop every evening after 50 miles or so and anchor for the night, since navigation at night isn't optimum, but offshore we sail straight through. We set up a watch system ( 2 hours on, 2 hours off) and take turns steering, navigating, watching for ship traffic, waiting for fish, etc. Another reason we went offshore, one of our critical electronics failed - the depth sounder. The depth sounder is a transducer for measuring water depth. That's very important to a sailboat that has a big keel and needs 5 feet of water. The display has been working off and on for the past week, but finally gave it up a couple days ago. So we decided to pull it out and send it in for repair here in Charleston. Not sure how long it will take.....today is Sunday, and we'll call the manufacturer tomorrow. One piece of electronics that we loved for the offshore trip was the radar. It was great to be able to watch the ship traffic around us on the radar screen, especially at night. (Well, tomorrow's task is to ship the depth sounder display and maybe some sight seeing in Charleston). P.S. No luck fishing!
10-28-98 We enjoyed our stay in Charleston, what a beautiful city. We walked downtown and admired the historic buildings and southern architecture, many houses have two level side porches, decorative wrought iron and beautiful gardens. It is one of my favorite southern cities. The big historic site here is of course, Ft. Sumter, .... Civil War. While in Charleston, we answered some email and updated our webpage. (I know we're not answering our email fast enough or updating our webpage fast enough, but this cruising life is very hectic! There are so many things to do! We'll try to update it every 2-3 weeks, but be patient with us.) One of the Charleston marinas had a "cruiser's lounge" with phone lines so you can hook up a laptop computer, TV with the weather channel, reading material, etc. Many boaters use their laptops for email, weather fax, internet access,... It's great to see that marinas are getting into this technology with a facility for boaters. Now we're underway after a 3 day stay in Charleston. Our depth sounder is working again, the manufacturer sent us a new Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) via overnight mail to a local marina and we are back in depth sounding business! What great customer service and luckily it was a user-replaceable plug-in LCD. We're about 10 miles south of Charleston now, motoring down a narrow land cut in the ICW. We just opened our 25th bridge since entering the ICW in Norfolk. Remember, we're a sailboat and our mast is 50 feet tall, we don't fit under many bridges. Overall there are 82 ICW bridges we have to open between Norfolk and Miami. Many of the bridges are on restricted opening schedules (such as every half hour or hour) so we get held up sometimes by being too early or too late. We communicate with the bridge tenders on our VHF radio to request an opening or let them know we are waiting for the next scheduled opening so we can pass through. There are many types of opening bridges on the ICW and some are quite antique-looking. You can look at one type - "swing bridge" on the PHOTOS page. The entire bridge pivots to open and let boats pass through. It's pretty neat. The one in the picture is John F. Limehouse Swing Bridge at mile marker 479.4 on the ICW. There are also many tall bridges on the ICW - fixed bridges, 65 feet tall, that we fit under. Pat is teaching himself to play the guitar on our trip. I bought him a Martin Backpacker guitar for his birthday in August. He hasn't practiced a great deal yet, but has learned a few chords. I'm waiting for him to serenade me already ... you can see a picture of him strumming on the PHOTOS page.
10-30-98 We just left Beaufort (pronounced BUFERT), SC. It's the same spelling as the Beaufort in NC, but pronounced differently. Can't figure that one out. Anyway, Beaufort, SC is kind of Marine Corps or "Jar Head" city, as their affectionately known. There is a Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Beaufort and just 5 miles south is Parris Island - Marine boot camp. My brother, Pat, spent some time in Parris Island in the early 70's. I took a picture of Parris Island, as we passed by on the water, so my brother could see it again and maybe bring back some "fond" memories. Although I'm sure "fond" is not the adjective he would use to describe Marine boot camp! (Picture on "PHOTOS" page). Throughout our trip on the waterway yesterday, Marine Corps F/A-18 fighter aircraft were continuously flying overhead. They are amazing to watch. We have seen alot of military aircraft and helicopters all along our waterway route, to include some Army UH-60 Black Hawks, Air Force Pave Lows, Air Force C-5s and F-14 Tom Cats. It's fun to identify them and try to guess what military base they fly from. We're definitely in Carolina Low Country now, it's all swamps and marshes with palm and cypress tress along the banks and shrimping boats everywhere (you can see one on "PHOTOS" page. Pat is planning to try his skills at casting for shrimp. We have a small cast net which is 6 feet in diameter and weighted on the perimeter. Supposedly you throw it out, much like tossing pizza dough in the air, let it hit the water and sink, then pull it in - full of shrimp. We'll try tonight from the dinghy after we anchor. We'll let you know if Pat "Forrest Gump" comes through!
Back to Log Book